PA Caught in the Tangled Web of Common Core

The following series of posts expose the half truths and outright lies surrounding PA’s involvement in “Common Core” and the much larger issue of education “reform” that is plaguing our education system.  I first heard about Common Core, not from Glenn Beck or the Koch brothers, but at a local school board meeting, and my internal radar went off and I remember thinking that this was something I needed to look into it. I was pleased to discover I wasn’t the only one.

I am not a journalist nor an education expert.  Nor am I the first one to write about Common Core, but in order to get my head around this subject and truly understood what it was that I found so objectionable about it, I needed to re-trace the steps of those who came before me and do some of my own research.

I have no agenda here except trying to wake up as many folks as possible.  I have spent countless hours researching and reading about this whole mess, as have many others. Believe it nor not, this research represents a fraction of the information I have found. It is positively overwhelming. But it must be exposed to the light of day and it must be stopped.

The decades long  “reform” movement, which didn’t begin nor will it end with “Common Core”, won’t do anything to improve education. The stench of Outcomes Based Education still permeates PA’s education system, even though it was supposedly defeated.

Well intentioned or not, we all know where roads paved with good intentions often lead.

So, here goes:

1. Common Core – The Name Game
2. Common Core – How the Spiders Got Into PA
3. Common Core – ‘Benchmarking’ to Finland’s success
4. Common Core  – PA’s Sunshine Laws Left Most of Us in the Dark
5. Common Core – Oh The Tangled Webs We Weave …
6. Common Core – Cash Cow
7. Common Core – We’re People, Not Products
8. Common Core – A Voluntarily Mandatory Curriculum
9. Common Core – Big Data
10. Common Core – Big Data & Early Learning
11. Common Core – Big Data & Privacy
12. Big Data & the State “Core” Model
13. Common Core – Data & Technology in the Driver’s Seat
14. Common Core – On Whose Authority?
15. Common Core –  “A Union Controlled Legislature“
16. Common Core – So, What Do We Do With a Runaway Train?
17. PA’s Early Learning Challenge
18. Corbett’s Common Core Conundrum

For some great links and resources on Common Core & PA Education in general, see my Common Core Links page.

A special thanks to Watchdog Wire – PA for helping spread the word about Common Core in PA!